1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that controls execution of services provided by an image forming apparatus or the like in accordance with a service process procedure of a workflow. The present invention also relates to a workflow management system that includes the image forming apparatus and the information processing apparatus, and a workflow execution method performed by the information processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, more and more image forming apparatuses, such as facsimile machines, printers, or MFPs (Multi Function Peripherals), are becoming compatible with network and functions equipped by the image forming apparatuses are increasingly provided as services via the network. In addition, a plurality of server apparatuses installed with various contents are distributed over the network and cloud computing that uses various services provided by the servers is being promoted.
The above structure formed of a plurality of image forming apparatuses and server apparatuses connected to the network functions as a service providing system that provides various services. The service providing system can not only provide one service by one of the image forming apparatuses and the server apparatuses, but also provide a plurality of services by making an execution sequence, as a workflow, of any services that are provided by the apparatuses and the devices via the network and by executing the services in order of the sequence set as the workflow so that the apparatuses and the devices can efficiently be used.
For example, in order to allow an MFP that belongs to a user to display functions provided by a service provider on a network as if the MFP has these functions and to let the user select and execute the functions, there is a proposed system in which the image forming apparatus in a user environment is connected, via the Internet, to a provider environment for providing various services (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-167988). To realize the above system, the system mainly includes an information acquiring unit that acquires information on processes of various services connected to the network and a control unit to control the processes.
Furthermore, to provide an image forming apparatus, a workflow execution method, and a workflow execution program capable of reducing operational load on users when work items included in a workflow are executed, an image forming apparatus that can set a workflow has been proposed (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-166426). The image forming apparatus includes a work-item managing unit that registers setting information related to work items for each work item included in the workflow; a display unit that displays a graphic indicating a work item for each work item registered in the work-item managing unit; and a work-item executing unit that executes image processing based on the setting information registered for a work item corresponding to a selected graphic in accordance with selection of the graphic.
In the workflow system using a sequence of a plurality of services, a service execution sequence that a user frequently uses is registered in advance as a workflow so that the same service procedure can be executed by only selecting the registered workflow instead of generating the execution sequence every time the workflow is used. Meanwhile, a user may repeatedly use the same workflow on the same document. In this case, the same processes are repeated from the first service every time the workflow is used. Therefore, there is a problem in that the same usage charge is charged and the same execution time is needed for each use although the result is the same.
For example, there may be a case that a user stores a certain document in an MFP and executes a workflow for performing OCR (Optical Character Recognition), translation, and printing on the stored document, and a different user later executes the same workflow on the same document. For another example, because a document that is once printed is often discarded, there may be a case that the same workflow is repeated when the same document is needed once again. In the above cases, if the services are executed in order from the first service every time the workflow is executed, the three services, i.e., OCR, translation, and printing, are repeated, so that execution time and usage charge are needed.
That is, the conventional apparatuses and systems have the above problems because they cannot store a process result of a service as an intermediate result and cannot execute the workflow from a process in the middle of the workflow.